"AMERICAN
SOLDIERS died in Vietnam because American presidents
lied to the American people about the need for
war. American soldiers are dying in Iraq because
an American president lied to the American people
about the need for war."

"I
feel an affinity for the troops over there in
Iraq. They are my comrades in arms. I admire their
sense of honor and sacrifice. I understand why
some of them believe they should be there. They
have neither the experience nor the wisdom to
see past the lies they have been told."

"With
so many lies emanating from the Oval Office during
the Bush years, the Democrats should own the truth
issue in this election cycle. But Kerry's proclivity
for doubletalk is giving Republicans an opening
they don't deserve in their fight to reelect George
W. Bush."

"Instead
of telling the seniors the truth when this reality
became apparent, the President used tens of millions
of dollars of taxpayer funds to air television
ads promising that the drug cards will save seniors
money."

"In
the US, the debate is over whether evolution occurred
at ALL, and there are a good 30% of the population
who not only completely reject the idea of evolution,
but stridently demand that evolution be taught
on an equal footing with amazing fairy tales about
great world wide floods and an account of creation
that not only contradicts all scientific knowledge,"

"But
how do we select the right lessons to learn? I
tried to suggest some in my recent book, and many
have attempted to do so in the 9/11 hearings,
but such efforts have been largely eclipsed by
partisan reaction."

"On
April 8, the U. S. Senate received the President's
nomination for a new Archivist of the United States
-- historian Allen Weinstein. For most Americans,
this is an obscure post. But the Weinstein nomination
has rightly been gathering increasing attention."

"According
to the Rand think tank study on peacekeeping,
we would need 500,000 troops in Iraq just to provide
security. Guess what? We don't have 'em. We're
stuck big time. It may not be Vietnam, but it's
sure a quagmire."

"What
we saw in the 9/11 Commission hearing with Condoleeza
Rice is a brilliantly conceived and orchestrated
exercise in reverse psychology. The major objective
of the hearing (a cooperative effort between the
administration represented by Rice and the commission
itself supposedly representing the public) was
to convince the public that, based on the 'intelligence'
information it had, no one could have foreseen
the use of hijacked commercial airliners in suicide
attacks on U.S. landmarks."

"DEFENSE
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was offensive enough
when he intimated last week that US troops were
as interchangeable as automotive factory parts.
Irritated at a question from a reporter about
why 20,000 American troops had to stay 90 days
longer than expected in Iraq, he said: 'Oh, come
on. People are fungible. You can have them here
or there.'"

"While
touting the economy this month, President Bush
said, "A more productive worker makes more money".
But if he has his way on new overtime regulations,
that will no longer be the case for tens of thousands
of workers."

"He
is the most dangerous man in the world. A
warmonger. A crackpot fundamentalist. A fanatic
and a fool who has only the barest grasp of the
killing power of the forces under his command.
His
name is George W Bush and his main battle plan
is to set the world on fire."

"I
hope a lot of people watched the press conference
Putsch threw Tuesday night, because a many, watching
him stammer and repeat nonsensical sound bites
and never answer any questions, probably had Captain
Bligh moments."

"For
those who missed it: Last week, Supreme Court
Justice Antonin Scalia went to Hattiesburg, Miss.,
to speak at Presbyterian Christian High. Scalia
typically does not allow video or audio recordings
to be made of his speeches, but no such prohibition
was announced at this particular appearance, which
was open to the public."

"President
Bush is scheduled to tout his tax cuts today at
a Tax Day event in Iowa. He is expected to repeat
his oft-heard mantra that tax cuts have helped
all Americans. But according to a new poll by
Money Magazine, '60% of Americans said the Bush
tax cut did not personally help them.'"

"I
have never seen a head so far up a Presidential
ass (pardon my Falluja) than the one I saw last
night at the 'news conference' given by George
W. Bush. He's still talking about finding "weapons
of mass destruction" -- this time on Saddam's
'turkey farm.' Turkey indeed. Clearly the White
House believes there are enough idiots in the
17 swing states who will buy this. I think they
are in for a rude awakening."

"The
sudden uprising of the Shiite militia loyal to
Moqtada Sadr took U.S. forces by surprise. For
now, it does not matter that this uprising is
containable or that Sadr may well be little more
than a thug. What matters is that he was able
to organize an insurrection right under our noses
and put up a more than credible fight. Calling
him a thug, as we are wont to do, does not change
matters."

"It
appears that voting technology is a topic that
the Republican leadership wants to tightly control.
It is without doubt that Republicans own most
of the companies that manufacture, sell, and service
voting machines. And President Bush and the Republican
Congress appear determined to control and limit
oversight of the elections industry."

"With
the release of the August 6, 2001 Presidential
Daily Briefing (PDB), it is now clear that President
Bush was personally given information before 9/11
that 'spelled out the who, hinted at the what
and pointed toward the where of the terrorist
attacks on New York and Washington that followed
36 days later'."

"When
the White House finally released the August 6,
2001 President's Daily Brief, it marked the end
of a two-year effort on the part of the Bush administration
to prevent the public from learning that a month
before the 9/11 attacks--and weeks after the U.S.
government had collected "chatter" indicating
Osama bin Laden was planning a major strike--Bush
received information indicating that al Qaeda
was intent on mounting attacks within the United
States."

"At
the beginning and end of every criticism I have
made in this process, I have also offered this
disclaimer: anyone who was in Congress, as I was
during the critical years leading up to Sept.
11, 2001, must accept some of the blame for the
catastrophe. It was a collective failure."

"Help
me puzzle out Iraq. I'm just a country boy, and
don't understand Advanced Thought, or high strategy,
or anything else. I admit it. Tell me about Iraq--quick,
'cause it seems to be blowing itself all to flinders,
and it's hard to study something the which there
ain't no more."

"Since
9/11, efforts have been made to investigate the
failures that led to the tragic events that day.
Yet, the Bush Administration has consistently
attempted to interfere with a thorough examination."

"You
see, according to Opensecrets.org, Enron bossman
Ken Lay was well on his way to building the Enron
family into the soon-to-be-President-Select's
number one lifetime donor--and for a mere $736,800,
a pittance compared to that $100M for the naming
rights to Enron Field."

"In
an ignominious capitulation to the White House
the leaders of the 9/11 Commission traded two
and a half hours of testimony by Condoleeza Rice
in public under oath in exchange for a written
promise not to ask anymore White House persons
to testify in public or under oath. It is not
clear who this includes but no doubt comprises
all cabinet level officials."

"The
Iraqi revolt against occupation is spreading in
qualitative developments. The Pentagon is reacting
with a murderous iron fist that is making the
popular Iraqi position increasingly clear to the
world: that the occupation forces are indeed an
enemy - not liberators."

"But
from the president on down, no one in this administration
ever admits a mistake or concedes having been
wrong. Dick Cheney, whose slogan should be 'Wrong
Where It Matters,' nonetheless takes to the stump
to lambaste John Kerry."

"According
to a report in the new edition of Vanity Fair,
former British Ambassador to the United States
Christopher Meyer said that President Bush made
clear at a dinner with Prime Minister Tony Blair
nine days after the 9/11 attacks that he wanted
to confront Iraq. The assertion is corroborated
by the Washington Post, which reported that President
Bush personally signed a two-and-a-half page directive
on September 17th, 2001 ordering the Pentagon
to begin drawing up Iraq invasion plans."

"It
is perhaps hard for Americans to understand the
U.S. occupation of Iraq in the context of globalization.
But Iraq today is clearly the epicenter of that
trend, and in this context, chaos is king. Here,
military force was used to seize control of the
world's most important commodity: oil. And that's
only the beginning.

Corporate
prospectors allied with the United States search
the country like safari hunters on elephants for
any opportunity to profit from Iraq's misery--that's
how conspicuous they are. Meanwhile, inside Baghdad's
green zone, where the U.S. occupation headquarters
are located, their innocuous-looking counterparts
draft regulations for privatizing everything from
health care to prisons."

"Putsch
was giving a campaign speech in Florida the other
day, and the cameras caught him babbling happily
away about how less jobs are more jobs and dead
forests are healthy forests and bankruptcy is
created wealth and all the other mindbenders that
make up right wing philosophy. Almost directly
behind him was Tyler Crotty, then aged 12, and
Tyler, predictably, was bored out of his skull."

"Previous
to September 11, 2001, the threat of terrorism
had reached a heightened state, the eventual targets
were suspect, the timing was imminent, and a bold
plan of response had been passed on by the previous
U.S. administration. So what happened to America's
national leadership? Did someone drop the ball?"

"The
correct question is: Put yourself in the shoes
of the decision maker at the time. What would
a reasonable and prudent person have done in the
same situation -- irrespective of whether that
action would or would not have prevented 9-11?"

"They
should try finding a hotel room in this city,
where the US occupation has unleashed a wave of
anti-American rage so intense that it now extends
not only to US troops, occupation officials and
their contractors but also to foreign journalists,
aid workers, their translators and pretty much
anyone else associated with the Americans."

"A
previously forgotten report from April 2001 (four
months before 9/11) shows that the Bush Administration
officially declared it 'a mistake' to focus 'so
much energy on Osama bin Laden.' The report directly
contradicts the White House's continued assertion
that fighting terrorism was its 'top priority'
before the 9/11 attacks."

"If
George W. Bush loses the election narrowly in
November, put it down to the birders. You read
it here first. What was Rove thinking when he
allowed William Haynes II to be nominated to the
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth
Circuit?"

"I'd
like to thank Richard Clarke for doing the most
obvious, decent and necessary thing this country
needed from its government after 9-11, and that
is to apologize to the families of those who died
in those attacks and to admit: 'We failed you.
... I failed you.' Thanks to former Sen. Bob Kerrey
for underlining it."

"Later,
as AuCoin gave his speech, mostly elaborating
on what he had just said to me, I knew what most
of the audience only sensed: that this wasn't
just a 'rally the troops' political fundraiser
speech: AuCoin was speaking straight from the
heart, and warning of the very real danger Putsch
and his crowd present to the United States of
America."

"Clarke's
accusations are laid out in his newly published
book, Against All Enemies, and amply corroborated
by the documentary record and testimony of other
participants. The controversy has created the
biggest political crisis for the Bush administration
since Bush took office in January 2001."

"There
isn't a journalistic outlet in the world that
has ALL the news. They pick and choose what you
see and hear, and none, taken alone, is reliable.
As long as there is a wide variety of independent
voices, you can get more complete views of current
events."

"President
Bush has told America many times that he wants
to "usher in an era of personal responsibility".
Yet instead of following former counterterrorism
chief Richard Clarke's lead and admitting some
responsibility for overseeing the worst national
security failure in American history, the White
House has pushed its allies to unleash a vicious
attack on Clarke."

"When
the uranium bullets, missiles, or bombs hit something
or explode most of the radioactive uranium turns
instantly to very, very small dust particles,
too fine to even see. When US Troopers or Iraqis
breathe even a tiny amount into their lungs, as
little as One Gram, it is the same as getting
an X-Ray every hour for the rest of their shortened
life."

"It's
been a year since the Bush administration defied
international law and public opinion and launched
its invasion of Iraq. Since then, more than 10,000
Iraqis have died along with almost 600 American
military personnel, 60 British troops and over
40 other coalition fighters. Approximately 10,000
American troops have also been injured along with
countless Iraqis."

"The
Putsch campaign was in a shambles today as the
allegations made by Richard Clarke about Putsch's
anti-terrorism efforts formed a big mushroom cloud
over the White House. Of course, the right wing
spin doctors, who never sleep, were frantically
cranking out excuses and rationalizations and
smears as fast as they could."

"Americans
just seem to LOVE getting sucker-punched by George
Bush. Cite unemployment statistics to them? Line
up facts about Bush's close alliances with, say,
the bin Ladin family or Enron? THEY ARE NOT INTERESTED!"

"U.S.
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld almost immediately
urged President George W. Bush to consider bombing
Iraq after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks
on New York and Washington, a former senior administration
counterterrorism aide says."

"According
to a stunning report posted by a retired Navy
Lt Commander and 28-year veteran of the Defense
Department (DoD), the Bush administration's assurance
about finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq
was based on a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
plan to 'plant' WMDs inside the country."

"President
Bush attacked his opponents today, saying, "If
you're going to make an accusation, you ought
to back it up with facts." But on everything from
the economy to national security, this high standard
stands in sharp contrast to the president's own
behavior."

"The
Bush administration has now lost one of its most
outspoken and prominent allies in the occupation
of Iraq, second only to Britain's Tony Blair.
But what is most remarkable about the election
is that it happened just three days after Spain
fell victim to the deadliest terrorist attack
on the European mainland since World War II."

"Federal
investigators are scrutinizing television segments
in which the Bush administration paid people to
pose as journalists praising the benefits of the
new Medicare law, which would be offered to help
elderly Americans with the costs of their prescription
medicines."

"During
this time of record deficits, President Bush promised
the country that his drug-industry backed Medicare
bill would cost $395 billion. (1) But just weeks
after he signed the bill into law, his own budget
office admitted that the bill would actually cost
well over $500 billion."

"So
the corporate media wrote him off immediately.
Not that they are solely to blame; Kucinich didn't
do well in the debates, coming across as shrill
and a bit twitchy. But even then, he usually made
the strongest points, sometimes drawing big ovations
from the crowds."

"Just
when you thought no one could top Education Secretary
Rod Paige calling the teachers' union 'a terrorist
organization,' along comes Veep Dick Cheney with
this gem: 'If Democratic policies had been pursued
over the last two to three years, the kind of
tax increases both Kerry and Edwards are talking
about, we would not have had the kind of job growth
that we've had.'"

"However,
while Bush said we need a 'renewed commitment
to democracy and freedom in this hemisphere,'
a careful look at the White House's behavior shows
that the Administration actively took the side
of an armed band of 'death-squad veterans and
convicted murderers' against a government that
had been democratically elected three times."

"From
the very inception of his Administration, President
Bush has mishandled the war on terrorism. He did
so first, by subordinating terrorism to his own
agenda and ignoring several chances to prevent
9-11, second, by covering up responsibility and
trying to block an investigation of the tragedy,
third, by changing course from relentlessly pursuing
our 9-11 attackers to an unnecessary, costly and
tragic war in Iraq and finally, by adopting an
overall strategy for global terrorism that is
too limited in scope to be effective."

"The
A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism)
Coalition condemns the U.S.-led coup carried out
today against the elected president of Haiti,
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, as well as the U.S. occupation
of that country. U.S. marines have entered Haiti
tonight (February 29)."